The present invention generally relates to the field of towel roll dispensers, and more particularly, is directed to a method of indicating when a towel roll has reached stub roll size and is near completion.
In designing commercial roll towel dispensers, it is important to signal the approaching depletion of the roll in order to minimize the amount of time wasted by the service attendant. If the amount of toweling which remains on the roll is not accurately signaled to the attendant, the attendant may be needlessly compelled to open the dispenser in order to visually check the amount of remaining towels. Such a practice is wasteful of time which in a commercial environment can become quite expensive. In addition, the absence of an indication of remaining towelling usually results in an erroneous assumption that sufficient towelling remains. Thus, the dispenser is likely to become inadvertently depleted, thereby frustrating the recipient user.
In many applications, the towel dispenser attendant routinely replaces the towel roll on a regular basis without regard to how much towelling remains on the roll. Such a practice reduces the likelihood that the dispenser will become depleted inadvertently but has the economic disadvantage that the towelling on partially depleted rolls is discarded. Over time, the amount of towelling discarded in this manner can become a rather significant cost factor.
In order to overcame some of the above mentioned problems, a number of signaling devices have been developed for towel dispensers in order to gauge towel usage. Many of these devices rely on a mechanical linkage which moves contrasting color indicators in accordance with towel usage. The indicators are visible outside the dispenser and serve as a guage of how much towelling remains on the roll.
In addition to being expensive to implement, mechanical indicators often malfunction and are prone to alignment problems, thus requiring regular service calls by a person trained in the art of repairing such devices. The low reliability of prior art usage indicators, thus remains a problem with respect to towel dispensers.
A number of methods and schemes are known in the prior art for marking the towel in order to indicate the amount of towelling remaining on the roll. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,215,052 to Price et al. discloses one such scheme wherein the towels are provided with a series of notches. As the towel roll is used, the spacing between the notches becomes closer together to thereby provide a visual indication of the quantity of towels remaining on the roll. U.S. Pat. No. 3,158,939 to Phillipp's disclose a method of indicating the amount of filament remaining on a roll. Measuring marks are stamped on the end of the filament core to provide a visual indication of the quantity of filament left on the core. U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,935,970 and 4,161,249 to Wooster et al. and Dashow also disclose techniques for marking a towel roll with some form of a depletion mark.
While marking the towelling such as taught by the above patents, represents an improvement over mechanical guages incorporated into the dispenser, they do not provide the ideal solution. For example, the notches formed in the towels disclosed by Price requires the use of equipment cable of physically cutting the notches along the edge of the towel. Accurately cutting notches in a material having the consistency of a towel is difficult given the soft and plyable texture of towels. Thus, the notches are likely to have ragged and frayed edges, making the spacing between them somewhat randum and difficult to interpret as an indicator of towel depletion. In addition, notching is slow, requires special equipment and leaves less than a pleasing appearance to the towel.
The measuring marks taught by Phillipps is not helpful in a dispenser since the end of the towel core is usually not visible to the user.
The towel depletion mark suggested by the Wooster is a diagonal bar which runs the entire length of the roll. Progression of the bar across the face of the towel serves as an indicator of towel depletion. Implementation of this technique is also time consuming as it must be done in conjunction with the towelling being wound into a roll. Calibrating the position of the bar relative to the end of the roll requires rather complex equipment.
Thus, there remains a need for a roll depletion indicator which is reliable, low cost and easy to interpret.